


What matters most is how well you walk through the fire

by KeepingTheStarsApart



Series: She's got lions in her heart (A fire in her soul) [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Dumbledore's Army, Gen, Hogwarts Express, The Silver Trio - Freeform, This is where the Resistance starts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-21
Updated: 2017-10-21
Packaged: 2019-01-21 00:42:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12445608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeepingTheStarsApart/pseuds/KeepingTheStarsApart
Summary: September the first, 1997.Death Eaters invade the Hogwarts Express in search of Harry Potter. Neville holds his head high, Luna suspects Wrackspurts, and Ginny gets ready to fight.





	What matters most is how well you walk through the fire

**Author's Note:**

> There is this scene in the Deathly Hallows Movie part 1, where Death Eaters stop the Hogwarts Express and Neville tells them that Harry isn't there. That is more or less where this takes off (slightly altered, because let's be honest: if it were in the books, they'd have a compartment to themselves and Luna would be there).
> 
> Title is a quote from Charles Bukowski.

They’re not even at Hogwarts yet and Neville has already faced a Death Eater heads on to tell him that Harry wasn’t here.  
Ginny shakes her head grimly as the cloaked figure walks off down the train, probably on its way to search other compartments. She never fails to be mildly impressed by the idiocy of You-Know-Who’s followers. 

“I think he had a lot of Wrackspurts,” Luna comments lightly, from behind an issue of Witch Weekly that’s actually a concealed Quibbler. Ginny can’t help the snort that escapes her, but she nods in agreement. 

“I don’t know,” Neville says tersely, “Can Wrackspurts affect people with no brain?” 

While Luna seems to seriously consider that question, Ginny looks at him. They haven’t reached the school, and all the new horrors that undoubtedly await them at the castle, but Neville already looks tired and tense. He stars off into nothingness as Luna turns her magazine upside down. 

“You know, I’ll just have to ask Daddy about the Wrackspurts. But maybe the symptoms of someone with no brain are similar to those of someone with a Wrackspurt infestation.”

“That makes sense,” Ginny says vaguely, not taking her eyes off Neville. 

“Things will be different at Hogwarts, won’t they?” Luna asks lightly, changing topic in a matter of seconds. 

Ginny squirms uncomfortably in her seat. No one answers, but they don’t need to. It was obvious that things would change way before they made Snape headmaster and Hogwarts compulsory. Maybe it was already obvious when Harry disappeared from a wedding and never came back.

“We can’t let them down,” Neville says after a while, quietly, as though he’s just thinking out loud. 

“Who?” 

Ginny’s voice is loud in the unnaturally quiet compartment and startles Luna into peering over the edge of her magazine. Neville looks at her as though he only just remembered she’s there. 

“I mean everyone,” he says slowly, “All the students. They’ll need someone to protect them from Snape, and whatever he’s going to come up with. Harry’s not here, and we don’t know when he’s going to come back. Until then… it’s on us.” 

“Because we’re Dumbledore’s Army,” Luna agrees happily. 

Neville cracks a smile. Ginny doesn’t. She thinks of a fifth year trio starting an underground rebellion in the Room of Requirement and wonders if they could do the same. 

“This is not like it was with Umbridge,” Ginny says, “We don’t know how bad it’s going to get. With Snape as headmaster, You-Know-Who basically controls the school. It’s not going to be about practicing Patronuses and smuggling Puking Pastilles into Filch’s tea.” 

“We knew that before we got on this train,” Neville says calmly, “Harry’s out there fighting a battle we can’t help him with, so we’ll have to take over at Hogwarts for him.”

Ginny hasn’t stepped down from a challenge since she made it out of the Chamber of Secrets alive and with her mind all hers. She went to the Department of Mysteries to fight Death Eaters at age fourteen. She can do Bat-Bogey Hexes and Reducto curses that make all six of her older brothers pale beneath their freckles. 

But maybe it’s exactly the absence of her brothers that makes fear curl in her stomach in a way she isn’t used to. She’s going to be the only Weasley at Hogwarts this year, the only member of their world’s biggest Blood traitor family while the castle will be infected by Death Eaters, with Voldemort’s shadow looming over it. Ginny looks at her friends and reminds herself forcibly that she’s not alone, that she doesn’t need her brothers’ protection. Her name and the things she’s experienced come with a certain responsibility, and if it means she can take a curse meant for a child, or give a bit of hope to terrified students, then so be it. She will not step down from a battle.  
She gives Neville a resolute nod.

Luna finally puts the Quibbler down. She smiles serenely at Neville and Ginny sitting opposite her and says, “The both of you will make great leaders of our army. Harry will be proud.”

Ginny frowns. “We’re not going to do this without you, Luna.” 

“Of course not. I’ll help,” Luna says, still smiling, “Let’s find all the others. We should reuse Hermione’s fake galleons, I’ve still got mine. But I’m not sure everyone else does…” 

“Luna,” Ginny tries again, “That’s not what I meant-“ 

“Did you lose your galleon? That’s okay, we’ll have to find a way to make more of them anyways, because I expect we’ll recruit a lot more people this year.” 

Neville looks at her fondly. “She meant that if we do this, if we lead an army inside Hogwarts against Snape and the Death Eaters, it won’t be just Ginny and me. It’ll be the three of us. You’ve got faith, Luna, and optimism. People are going to need that.” 

“They’re going need hope,” Ginny adds and swallows around a lump in her throat. 

“Oh,” Luna says brightly, “Alright. We’ll be like Harry, Hermione and Ron. A trio leading the D.A. That seems right.” 

“No,” Ginny says quickly. She thinks of Hermione sitting on a pillow in the Room of Requirement and reading her way through one bookshelf after the other; of her brother’s unwavering loyalty as he stands at his best friend’s side; of Harry’s bright eyes as he teaches a bunch of kids how to Stun. “We’re not them. We can’t be them.” 

Neville looks from her fierce glare to the dirigible plums that dangle from Luna’s earrings as though nothing has changed. “We don’t have to be. This is our battle, and we’ll do it our way. As good as we can.”

Ginny looks into his eyes and remembers the boy she went to the Yule ball with, who practiced ballroom dancing for weeks and still stepped on her feet, and tries to find him somewhere in the man sitting next to her. She glances at Luna, still so happy to be part of something two years later, willingly putting down her Quibbler to fight an overpowering opponent with her friends. She thinks of her eleven-year-old self, terrified and helpless, and knows that she will never be that girl again. She will fight, they all will, for what is right, and for the children that have somehow become their responsibility in between Dumbledore’s death and Harry’s departure. They will not let them down.

“Alright,” she says then, and Neville nods and Luna smiles, and they make a decision right this moment, in this train that used to take them to a save place and is now steadily carrying them towards a dark and difficult year; the decision to fight back, no matter what will be thrown in their way. Not because it’s what Harry would do, not because they have an army named after their dead headmaster at their heels, but because they are still here and they will do what needs to be done.

“We’ll need a plan.”


End file.
